It is a member of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community, and funded by the federal government and by the states of Germany.
The centre is organised in three sections: Organismic Primate Biology, Neurosciences, and Infection Research.
Heads of departments hold professorship at the University of Göttingen or at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Hanover.
Currently, about 1400 monkeys from nine species (including rhesuses, ring-tailed lemurs, common marmosets, olive baboons, macaques), live in the primate husbandry of the DPZ.
Apart from research, the centre offers examinations and treatments of primates as a service for scientists, institutions, companies, and zoos.